After three years in a drought-enforced limbo, one of western Queensland’s favourite grassfed picnic race meetings is getting ready to welcome horses, jockeys and crowds through the gate again.
The meeting run by the Tower Hill Amateur Race Club at Hillview, 40km north west of Muttaburra, has long been one of the highlights on western Queensland’s social calendar and a new committee is keen to see it regain that position.
Led by Amy Macintosh from Longreach, who has been riding at the picnic race meeting since 2007 and following a long family tradition, the group is a blend of old hands and new faces.
All have one thing in common, to install the Tower Hill meeting firmly on the calendar again.
“It’s been in the shadows for a while,” secretary Rhys Peacock said. “We want to bring it out into the light again.”
It’s one of three grassfed picnic meetings that made up a western circuit – the Western Picnic race meeting at Corfield and Kooroorinya were the other two – but only Kooroorinya has been able to get under enough rain to keep racing.
The severity of the drought and the lack of feed brought about Tower Hill’s cancellation for the last three years, but Amy said plenty of people had pledged horses this year, and were keen to see life breathed back into the tradition.
They need a minimum of 25 horses but usually have between 40 and 50 nominations for the registered meeting.
Amy said the two-day event would complement the centenary race meeting being staged this year by Kooroorinya, which was finding it hard to stand alone as the only grassfed meeting to prepare horses for.
Ironically, the special booklet issued for the 50th annual Tower Hill meeting, in 1971, notes that it was taking place “in the wake of a series of shocking drought years, coupled with devastatingly low wool prices, which we can only hope are in part, at least, behind us”.
The author said back then it was to be hoped that although they may not see Tower Hill quite as prosperous as in pre-drought years for some time to come, “the Club will continue to bring people together for many years to come”.
Normally held on a Friday and Saturday, the 92nd race meeting will depart from tradition and is being planned for the Saturday and Sunday of the May Day long weekend, on April 29-30.
According to Rhys, this is being done to take advantage of the public holiday on the Monday and will be trialled for this year.
While the committee is looking at adding attractions to the traditional racing program, to differentiate it from normal race meetings, one event remains firmly on the program.
That’s the trainers’ race, dubbed the Jumbo Ride, with a minimum weight classification of 82kg for riders, which attracts lots of comment and good-natured speculation.
Amy said racegoers could look forward to seven races each day, live music, powered campsites, full catering and a licenced bar, nearest the pin golf, foot races and boat races, dance competitions, merchandise stalls, calcuttas, and the ever-popular Fashions on the Field.
“The old committee members have done a fantastic job over the years keeping Tower Hill going, meeting all the requirements for Racing Queensland and battling to keep it alive, but it’s exciting to see a lot of new, enthusiastic young members wanting to be involved,” she said.